As the winter season gets colder, the tourist excitement in the religious and touristic district of Mustang has started to decline. As the winter season approaches, hotels in the district headquarters Jomsom and hotels operating on the national highway, including the hotels, are facing downfall.

Recently, as the Beni-Jomsom road has become easier, some tourism entrepreneurs have been waiting for tourists. As the winter season gets colder, the Pokhara-Jomsom air service was also suspended a month in advance. The pressure of tourist vehicles on the national highway road is also very low.

According to RSS, The first snowfall of this season occurred in Upper Mustang last October, while there has been no snowfall in Lower Mustang. However, the extreme cold and the effect of the northern wind have affected people’s lives here. As the winter season begins, the temperature in Upper Mustang has dropped to -20 degrees Celsius in the morning and evening, and in Lower Mustang to -10 degrees Celsius.

Due to the effects of the northerly winds of winter, local residents are unable to move outside easily. Even though the weather is sunny in the afternoon, the cold wind has started blowing along with the northerly winds, which has affected daily life.

As the residents there have locked themselves in their homes and gone down to the valley to escape the cold, Upper Mustang has become completely deserted, said Umesh Poudel, head of the ACAP Lomanthang office to RSS. Although the hotels in Muktinath located here are open, there is no tourist activity.

With the extreme cold of winter, the rivers, branches, taps of houses, irrigation canals and safety tanks of houses in Upper Mustang have frozen and formed ice, affecting the daily lives of the local citizens there. The cold has been affecting the health of the local citizens who have not descended to the valley to escape the winter. In Lower Mustang, local farmers are enduring the extreme cold and are engaged in apple orchard management work.

The number of foreign tourist arrivals in January has increased by 5,559 or 54 percent compared to December. According to police sources, it is said that one to one and a half hundred tourists still come to Mustang daily via the Beni-Jomsom road.  According to the tourism records of the District Police Office, when comparing the tourist arrivals from July-December of the last fiscal year, it is seen that the tourist arrivals from the same month of the current fiscal year have decreased by 10.05 percent.